In a letter to his counterparts in the United States and Mexico, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he wants to renew the countries’ trilateral trade deal for another 16 years and opt out of an annual review process. “This agreement is highly beneficial to each of our countries and to the integrated North American economy,” LeBlanc wrote in a...
While Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged weaknesses in the Canadian economy, he also defended the federal government’s economic agenda on Tuesday and did not use the word “recession.” “This government’s been in the process of laying the foundations for a stronger, more resilient, more independent Canadian economy,” Carney said Tuesday when asked directly by reporters in Ottawa about whether Canada...
The Liberals maintain a clear lead in federal voter preferences at 41.1%, ahead of the Conservatives at 32.7%, though the margin has narrowed to single digits, indicating a more competitive environment may be emerging. Other parties remain well behind, with the NDP at 12.6% and smaller shares for the Bloc, Greens and People’s Party. Public attention continues to centre on...
Three big U.S. tech companies control the vast majority of Canada's publicly-available cloud infrastructure, says a new report released ahead of the government's national AI strategy, which is expected to include measures targeting AI sovereignty. Amazon, Microsoft and Google hold 85 per cent of public cloud market share in Canada -- much higher than their global average of 66 per...
Former prime minister Stephen Harper will be campaigning for Albertans to remain a part of Canada and reject the sovereignty option in this October’s provincial referendum, according to his spokesperson. Mr. Harper, who led the country from 2006 to 2015, is one of Canada’s most prominent Conservatives and, though born and raised in Toronto, has lived in Alberta throughout his...
The Liberals maintain a clear lead in federal voter preferences at 41.1%, ahead of the Conservatives at 32.7%, though the margin has narrowed to single digits, indicating a more competitive environment may be emerging. Other parties remain well behind, with the NDP at 12.6% and smaller shares for the Bloc, Greens and People’s Party. Public attention continues to centre on...
The Liberals still lead nationally, but the NDP has jumped to 16% while Mark Carney’s approval slips to 57%.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith drops a political bomb, a financial bomb, a bomb dropped on the separatist assumptions of way more gain than pain by Alberta leaving Canada and striking out on its own. Almost $400 billion in start-up costs to set up an independent Alberta. Roughly $80,000 for every Albertan. Somewhere between $25 billion and $50 billion in yearly...
Canada has sent a letter to the United States and Mexico recommending that the three countries renew the continental trade pact. The letter from Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is required as part of the mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known in Canada as CUSMA. LeBlanc is set to travel to Washington today to meet with U.S...
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran-U.S. conflict has delivered the largest oil supply disruption in history, removing roughly 20% of global supply and sending prices surging. This crisis underscores a painful truth for Canada: we have squandered a golden opportunity to act as a reliable energy supplier to the world. Canada sits in an enviable geo-strategic...
Canada’s selection as home to the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank affirms our country’s credibility with its allies and its leadership at a time when defence, security and economic resilience is critical. Nova Scotia was one of the first to raise our hand in support of Canada’s bid.
Ever since Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the referendum on a referendum there has been a flurry of speculation from one end of the country to the other. Most of it comes in the form of a warning: things could look much more dire if this confusing referendum question propulses Albertans into a real referendum on separation. Separatists don’t give...
Steven Guilbeault finally had enough. The renewed deal between Alberta and Ottawa, which lowers the headline industrial carbon price and weakens or eliminates other climate policies he fought for as the minister of environment and climate change, made it abundantly clear that he could no longer sit in the Liberal caucus. Indeed, the writing was so obviously on the political...
When reporters asked Mark Carney about Steven Guilbeault’s decision to quit the Liberal caucus and his seat, months after walking out of cabinet over the Alberta MOU, the Prime Minister was gracious. He wished him and his family well. As reported by Radio-Canada, Carney said: “C’est sa décision, c’est normal, c’est la vie” — it’s his decision, it’s normal, that’s...
The first promise made by the federal Liberals in their last election platform — literally — was to unite the country by building one economy, so that Canadians can work wherever they want and goods can move freely from coast to coast. “Unleashing free trade” would “give ourselves much more than any foreign government, including the U.S., can ever take...
Central Canadian political elites are upset with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to hold a referendum that might eventually lead to a sovereign Alberta. While sovereigntist sentiment in Quebec has long been acknowledged and accommodated in English Canada, Western alienation is treated with who-do-they-think-they-are condescension.
If this president has somehow permanently changed American politics, if there is a Trump 2.0 with someone like J.D. Vance, Canada must embrace the wider world, as Mark Carney is doing. It's not only prudent, it is essential.
Former federal cabinet minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay cast herself as the one, true blue Conservative in the campaign for the B.C. party leadership that culminated Saturday evening with her narrow, fourth ballot victory. Article content “B.C. Liberal insiders are trying to take over the Conservative party of B.C.,” declared Findlay’s campaign literature. “They want to steal the Conservative name and push...
Steven Guilbeault’s breakup with his Liberal government was a long time coming, but the events that set if off were swift. In an interview with my colleague Ryan Tumilty, the former environment minister and soon-to-be ex-MP underlined just how much the Liberals have changed in a matter of months.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s separation referendum is federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s opportunity. If he takes it. Alberta is ground zero for the conservative movement in Canada. It has long asserted a more populist, free market, small government hold on the Conservative Party of Canada, past and present. It has outsized political influence on the direction of the party, given...
One word kept coming up this week, as Steven Guilbeault tendered his resignation from a government in which he no longer thought he could do his most important work. The word was “room.” As in: Is there still room on the Liberal benches for an ardent environmentalist? Can the party offer room for pipeline and resource proponents, alongside people animated...
If you’re a patriotic Canadian who believes we need to build up this country as rarely before, Mark Carney wants you to put your own dollars into it. And despite a high degree of skepticism among his friends in the financial world, he’s serious about offering a government-backed guarantee that you’ll get your money back.
News of strain in Canada’s economy comes after more than a year of a trade war with the U.S. — and a day after Prime Minister Mark Carney pitches Canada as a tool to help make America great again. The Pulse Panel weighs in.
When I first went to Ottawa as a member of Parliament, I didn’t go because I believed the system was working. Quite the opposite. Like many Albertans, I was frustrated. Western Canada was too often ignored, our industries were misunderstood and decisions affecting our livelihoods were being made by people who had little understanding of how this country works outside...
Steven Guilbeault is gone, but, oh, the wreckage he leaves behind. No single politician, apart from ex-prime minister Justin Trudeau, did more to create today’s separatist movement in this province. The former environment minister’s extremist climate policies, coupled with massive expansion of federal power, imprinted a fixed belief that Liberal Ottawa despises Alberta and can never be trusted.
I have a pretty good idea what a lot of people think I should say about Alberta’s sovereignty referendum, and I have a good idea of what I actually think. The problem is the two don’t line up very well. What a lot of people think that I (and others like me) should say is, mostly, nothing. As an opinionator...
As Alberta careens toward a bedevilling referendum this fall, Team Canada finds itself in desperate need of a captain. Premier Danielle Smith got us into this mess, so it shouldn’t be her. Provincial NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, an unimpressive adversary of the premier’s thus far, would be an uninspired choice.
The battle for the heart of the UCP is finally on. Premier Danielle Smith’s ministers and MLAs are firing out messages to current and former party members. It’s time to take the UCP back from the fringe separatists. That’s the theme.
The reality is that many Albertans — and not just those already convinced that separation is the only answer — are legitimately frustrated with their province’s status in Canada.
The speech Mark Carney delivered to the Economic Club of New York on Thursday was many things. In the room, it was a stability balm amid a global drama: Canada is the reasonable, rational source of solutions, not problems. “A country that’s predictable, reliable and principled in a world that’s anything but,” Carney said in his summation. As a narrative...
As the Western premiers pulled on Team Canada soccer jerseys at the close of their meeting in Kananaskis on Tuesday, some kind of barbed comment was inevitable. Wab Kinew obliged. “I just want to tell Premier (Danielle) Smith, that she looks great in a Team Canada jersey,” the Manitoba premier said, pointedly. As host of the conference, Smith may have...
Canada will buy the GlobalEye aircraft from Swedish manufacturer Saab, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday at the CANSEC defence industry conference in Ottawa. Canadians could be forgiven for having two questions: What does that mean? And also, what does it mean?
Important referendums are usually defeated. But successful or not, they always divide families, communities and nations. The wreckage stems from the high emotion, the purely polemical arguments and, most often, the nasty personal attacks that are part of a referendum circus. Canada, like most advanced democracies, has held very few referendums. In part, that is so because governments don’t like...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s request for an emergency debate on the state of Canada’s economy was denied by the Speaker of the House Monday afternoon. Poilievre rose in the House Monday afternoon to formally make that call. “The prime minister couldn’t be bothered to say a single thing about this emergency since he learned of it on Friday morning,” Poilievre...
Two former B.C. Conservative legislators now sitting as Independents say new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay will polarize the province. Amelia Boultbee said Findlay's victory on Saturday showed that part of the B.C. Conservative base and board want to take the party "further and further to the right," and "engage in Donald Trump-style populism," while Elenore Sturko said it was sad the...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is planning to meet with her counterpart in Quebec City this week, with separatism and energy possible topics of discussion. Smith says she's hoping Quebec Premier Christine Frechette will be open to talking about an east-west energy corridor. Smith says every time she has met with leadership in Quebec that she has talked about developing a...
The new national unity council will assess what is driving antisemitism in Canada and improve research and data collection on hate incidents, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday. Speaking at a synagogue in Toronto, Carney said "antisemitism has surged to levels not previously seen in the postwar period," noting incidents including the firebombings of synagogues and bullets fired at...
Nearly 3,000 Chinese-manufactured EVs landed in the country last month. More than 2,900 Chinese-made electric passenger vehicles arrived in Canada during the month of May. Data from Global Affairs Canada indicates that May was the first month of EV imports from China after Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to let in tens of thousands of the vehicles under a reduced...
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is set to travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet with his American counterpart as official negotiations between Ottawa and the Trump administration on a critical continental trade pact lag behind talks with Mexico. LeBlanc's spokesperson Gabriel Brunet said the minister will be joined by Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette for a meeting with U.S...
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says British Columbia needs the leadership of Kerry-Lynne Findlay, but two former provincial Conservatives say the new leader of their old party will polarize the province. Poilievre says he hopes Findlay will succeed in making B.C. more affordable and safer, as he congratulated the former member of his caucus for winning the leadership of the...
A draft version of Canada's national AI strategy outlines a drive to scale up business adoption and provide all Canadians access to free AI literacy training, but is short on specifics regarding how the federal government will protect Canadians from the technology's potentially harmful effects. The document, obtained by CBC News and titled "AI for All," says the decisions Canada...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday of avoiding accountability after recent data showed the Canadian economy contracted again. Statistics Canada said Friday that real gross domestic product declined 0.1 per cent on an annualized basis in the first quarter. That's the second consecutive quarterly contraction to start the year, meeting some definitions of a technical...
A survey commissioned by the federal government late last year suggests nearly half of Canadians believe the country is admitting too many immigrants — but the share of respondents who think so has dropped since last year's polling. The survey found 47 per cent of respondents believe "too many" immigrants are coming to Canada, while 38 per cent say "about...
South Korean defence firm Hanwha says it has reached a deal with Algoma Steel to supply military-grade steel for the possible manufacturing of land defence vehicles in Canada. Hanwha said in April it had reached a separate agreement with Canada's Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association on a prospective joint venture to make military land vehicles for the Canadian Armed Forces and...
Postal workers have given the thumbs-up to a new contract, casting their ballots overwhelmingly to approve a tentative agreement after more than two years of labour strife. The union representing some 55,000 Canada Post employees said Monday that more than four in five voted in favour of the five-year deal, which includes wage increases of 6.5 per cent and three...
Ottawa also needs to urgently address misinformation and disinformation surrounding separation, including claims that Albertans would automatically be better off leaving Canada, says pollster Frank Graves.
Data from an advanced electric vehicle that falls into the wrong hands could be used to track people or carry out surveillance, an internal government document warns. The Public Safety Canada memo, prepared to address concerns about Chinese vehicles, urges Canadians to be mindful of the security and privacy risks of the digital devices they buy and use. Earlier this...
Documents used in private consultations show 3 routes and 6 ports in northern B.C. The Alberta government has considered three different pipeline routes through northern British Columbia for a new major oil export pipeline, according to documents obtained by CBC News which provide a first glimpse into where the project could be located. Several ports on the northern coast are...
An analyst says Kerry-Lynne Findlay won the B.C. Conservative leadership race because she is an "authentic champion" of populism within the broader conservative movement. David Black, who teaches political theory at Royal Roads University in Greater Victoria, says Findlay's victory over Caroline Elliott confirms the party's turn toward populism. While Elliott performed populism, Black says that Findlay didn't need to...
Doug Ford is set to co-host a business reception alongside American billionaire Ross Perot Jr. next month in Washington, part of the Ontario Premier’s renewed efforts to push for stronger economic ties between Canada and the United States at a critical juncture in trade negotiations.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had a few suggestions for how Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew could work together after he fact-checked her earlier this week. Speaking on her radio program Your Province, Your Premier Smith responded to a question from show host Wayne Nelson about last week’s western premiers event. “I would say rather than lecturing Albertans about what they should...
Can a conservative ever trust a liberal? “Just because it’s a Liberal government in Ottawa, and a Liberal prime minister, doesn’t mean it has to be fractious,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tells me. With mutual respect, she says, “the sky’s the limit on what we can do.” Smith points to history: Alberta premier Ralph Klein, a Progressive Conservative at the...
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson joked there may be a place for Canada in the European Union to join “like-minded” nations as “the most Nordic country in the world outside the Nordics.” “European Union is obviously a matter of geography, you can hear that from the name,” Kristersson told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos when asked for his opinion...
The federal government has ordered a financial audit into transactions and activities at a landmark Indigenous languages office after receiving anonymous complaints. Canadian Heritage didn't elaborate on the allegations against the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, an arm's-length office set up five years ago after it was recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In a Sunday morning letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for an emergency parliamentary debate to address the state of Canada’s economy. “You promised you would deliver the fastest-growing economy in the G7. You delivered the only recession in the G7,” wrote the Official Opposition leader. On Friday, a report from Statistics Canada showed...
Former Canadian ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman doesn’t think CUSMA is going anywhere, despite the fast-approaching deadline to review the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement and the rhetoric employed by Trump administration trade officials. “I personally do not believe that the agreement will go away, and (the U.S. trade representative) has said that,” Hillman told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos...
$31.2M spent since 2021 upgrading fleet now retiring. Former Snowbird pilots are calling on the government to keep the iconic aerobatic show in the air by scaling back the performance rather than suspending it entirely. The Royal Canadian Air Force recently announced it's pausing the Snowbirds demonstration squadron at the end of the 2026 flying season until new planes arrive...
Former federal MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay has won the race to replace former British Columbia Conservative leader John Rustad on the fourth ballot, beating commentator Caroline Elliott. Findlay won with 51 per cent of the vote, just ahead of Elliott, who finished with 49 per cent. Three other candidates, starting with sitting MLA Peter Milobar, then entrepreneur Yuri Fulmer, and finally...
U.S. President Donald Trump’s negotiating team is demanding that all North American-made autos contain at least 50 per cent U.S. content, firing the opening salvo in a battle over the future of the pact governing continental trade. American and Mexican negotiators hunkered down in Mexico City this week to start a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and the U.S. announced...
How do you MAGA - Make America Great Again? According to Mark Carney, the answer is, MCS, Make Canada Strong. That was part of the message the PM gave American business leaders in New York yesterday and guess who was clapping? Pete Hoekstra, one of Donald Trump's leading Canadian critics, is the U.S. ambassador to Canada. It's been quite a...
It's a pivotal day for the British Columbia Conservative Party as the Opposition in the provincial legislature will announce its new leader. The candidates, who had to pay more than $100,000 to join the race, were whittled down to five: former MLA Iain Black, commentator Caroline Elliott, former MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, current MLA Peter Milobar and entrepreneur Yuri Fulmer.
The federal government is facing increased pressure to state whether it knows how some of its recent policy changes will affect Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin was peppered with questions on the issue at a parliamentary committee hearing on Thursday. Bloc Quebecois MP Patrick Bonin pressed Dabrusin on whether the government had modelling to show how it...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump tried to create a near $1.8 billion fund that could be funneled to his supporters as a means of settling a lawsuit he filed against his own government -- even arguing that he "gave up a lot of money in allowing" it.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday, as the Justice Department said it would temporarily pause its implementation to comply with a court order.
NEW YORK (AP) -- In a remarkable sign of the turmoil at CBS's top-rated "60 Minutes," correspondent Scott Pelley said CBS News head Bari Weiss of "murdering the show" and accused its new producer of having "slender qualifications" for the job, according to reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A standoff between the White House and the Senate remains unresolved after Republican senators defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agencies.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson joked there may be a place for Canada in the European Union to join “like-minded” nations as “the most Nordic country in the world outside the Nordics.” “European Union is obviously a matter of geography, you can hear that from the name,” Kristersson told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos when asked for his opinion...
U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. blockade on ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz “will now be lifted.” “Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!’ Say HELLO to your wives, husbands, parents, and families from me, your favorite President!” reads...
China's foreign minister Wang Yi is in Ottawa today, the first such visit in a decade. He is in Canada for a three-day trip that will include meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Prime Minister Mark Carney. The prime minister visited China in January and met with President Xi Jinping.
Employing U.S. President Donald Trump’s marquee slogan, Prime Minister Mark Carney told a New York City business crowd on Thursday that “Canada strong will help make America great again,” a remark the U.S. envoy to this country said was “worth repeating.” Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the prime minister detailed his economic diversification strategy, and his plans...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump are “constantly” in touch and will meet during the G7 summit in France next month as the review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal, or CUSMA, is drawing closer, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday. The trade deal, which was signed in 2018 and touches virtually all trade between Canada, the U.S...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Canada this week is significant. It is the first bilateral visit to Canada by a Chinese foreign minister since June 2016, and the most visible sign yet that the thaw in Canada-China relations that began with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January visit to Beijing is moving into a more consequential implementation phase. If...
In just over a month, North American governments are expected to decide the future of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). More likely, they will decide how to decide that future. It’s still not clear to anyone, probably U.S. trade negotiators included, how this first six-year review of CUSMA will play out.
Over a century ago, Max Weber observed in Politics as a Vocation that “one can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.” Once detached from responsibility and objective judgment, passion becomes a mere sentiment staged as action, a gesture absorbed in itself and blind to the consequences...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
In 2007, Roger Martin, then dean of the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, wrote a book called The Opposable Mind. It argued that the most successful leaders tend to be “integrative thinkers,” by which he meant they tackled problems holistically rather than breaking them down into component parts. Instead of seeking trade-offs, they are at ease with...
“Despite the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries…Lebanon moved forward with the ban on antipersonnel landmines,” said the Ottawa-based group Mines Action Canada in a statement, celebrating the new addition.
Canada’s privacy laws are supposed to protect ordinary citizens from unwarranted intrusions into their personal lives. But they can also protect pedophiles. Dead pedophiles. Dead pedophiles from America.
Althia Raj and Rob Russo share what they're hearing on everything from Dominic LeBlanc's visit to Washington and what it says about Canada's latest stance on the relationship with the United States; Stephen Harper; AI; and what's happening inside the Liberal caucus and what that could mean for the NDP.
We start our weekly Monday conversation with Dr. Janice Stein of the Munk School at the University of Toronto, with another segment on the war in Iran - will it ever end?
What happens when you invite the migrants of the world, as former prime minister Justin Trudeau did, to flood into Canada? You end up with an avalanche of false refugee claims, bad actors gaming the system to stall deportations, and Ottawa spending nearly $1 billion a year to provide gold-plated health plans for tens of thousands of people who shouldn’t...
